“You see an old photograph of me and then actually track me down. I can’t imagine
how you did it.”
Blomkvist put the photograph from the car park on the table.
“I was able to find you thanks to this picture, which was taken a little later in the
day.” He explained how, via the Norsjö Carpentry Shop, he had found Burman, who
in turn had led him to Henning Forsman in Norsjövallen.
“You must have a good reason for this long search.”
“I do. This girl standing close to you in this photograph is called Harriet. That day
she disappeared, and she was never seen or heard of again. The general
assumption is that she fell prey to a murderer. Can I show you some more
photographs?”
He took out his iBook and explained the circumstances while the computer booted
up. Then he played her the series of images showing how Harriet’s facial expression
changed.
“It was when I went through these old images that I found you, standing with a
camera right behind Harriet, and you seem to be taking a picture in the direction of
whatever it is she’s looking at, whatever caused her to react in that way. I know that
this is a really long shot, but the reason I’ve been looking for you is to ask you if by
any miracle you still have the pictures from that day.”
He was prepared for Mildred Berggren to dismiss the idea and tell him that the
photographs had long since vanished. Instead she looked at him with her clear
blue eyes and said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that of course
she still had her old honeymoon pictures.
She went to another room and came back after several minutes with a box in which
she had stored a quantity of pictures in various albums. It took a while to find the
honeymoon ones. She had taken three photographs in Hedestad. One was blurry
and showed the main street. Another showed her husband at the time. The third
showed the clowns in the parade.
Blomkvist eagerly leaned forward. He could see a figure on the other side of the
street behind a clown. But the photograph told him absolutely nothing.